Supporters of far-right British figure rally as anti-racism demonstrators mount counter-protest

BRIAN MELLEY
Sat 26 October 2024 






Police form a line to in front of protesters who are taking part in a counter demonstration to a far right pro-UK rally endorsed by Tommy Robinson, in London, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

LONDON (AP) — Thousands of supporters of jailed far-right activist Tommy Robinson marched through London on Saturday as anti-racism demonstrators mounted a nearby counter-protest.

The so-called Unite the Kingdom march — planned by Robinson and supposed to feature him as speaker — led to calls for his freedom after his arrest Friday on a warrant for contempt of court.

“We want Tommy out," the crowd of mostly white men chanted. The sea of marchers toted Union and England flags and some waved “Make America Great” banners as they gathered near a fenced-off statute of former Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the square opposite the Houses of Parliament.

The march was countered by thousands of people organized by the group Stand Up to Racism who held signs saying “Refugees welcome” and “Oppose Tommy Robinson.”

Robinson, 41, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is the founder of the nationalist and anti-Islamist English Defense League and remains one of the most influential far-right figures in Britain.

He has been blamed for stirring up protests that turned into a week of violent disorder across England and Belfast, Northern Ireland this summer after social media users falsely identified the suspect in a stabbing rampage that killed three young girls in the seaside community of Southport as an immigrant and a Muslim.

Robinson supporters railed against the jailing of hundreds of rioters who assaulted police officers, set cars ablaze, screamed racist epithets and attacked hotels housing asylum seekers.

Some participants wore “I am Peter Lynch” badges and one man held a fishing pole with a sign reading “Peter Lynch RIP patriot." They were referring to a 61-year-old man who died in prison after pleading guilty for his role as part of an angry mob that smashed windows at a hotel in the northern town of Rotherham housing migrants and injured dozens of riot police.

A separate march of several hundred family members, friends and supporters of those who have died in police custody also took place. Some of those activists seemed to echo the anti-racism marchers by holding signs that said “No to hatred, no to fascism.”

At least five people were arrested at the main rallies, the Metropolitan Police said.

Two were arrested on suspicion of assault, including one allegedly on a police officer, at the anti-racism march. One person was arrested at the Unite the Kingdom march for a public order offense and another on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offense. A fifth person was arrested for allegedly directing a racist remark at an officer, but the Met hadn't confirmed which protest the person attended.

Robinson, who has been jailed in the past for assault, contempt of court and mortgage fraud, faces a hearing Monday in a contempt-of-court proceeding for allegedly violating a 2021 High Court order barring him from repeating libelous allegations against a Syrian refugee who successfully sued him.

While Robinson was banned from Twitter in 2018, he was allowed back after Elon Musk took over the social network and rebranded it X. He now has 1 million followers.

Thousands gather for Tommy Robinson’s protest as activist remains in custody

William Warnes, Sam Hall and Jordan Reynolds, PA
Sat 26 October 2024 


Thousands of Tommy Robinson supporters gathered in central London for a planned protest which the political activist missed after he was remanded into custody by police.

Demonstrators carried placards reading “Two tier Keir fuelled the riots” as they headed from Victoria station to Parliament Square on Saturday.

“Bring back Rwanda” and “Stop the Boats” signs were also hoisted by demonstrators – some of whom were drinking cans and glasses of alcohol.


Two arrests were made at the demonstration, one on suspicion of a breach of the Public Order Act conditions in place and an alleged breach of the peace, and one on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence, the Metropolitan Police said.

A counter-protest organised by Stand Up to Racism also took place in the capital, with thousands joining after being urged to “take to the streets” in a “massive anti-fascist demonstration”.

Supporters of a rally endorsed by Tommy Robinson march from Victoria Station to Parliament Square in central London (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

The counter demonstration heard from speakers including Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott plus trade union general secretaries.

Two arrests were made near the Stand Up to Racism protest – one woman was arrested on suspicion of common assault – who was later de-arrested, and another arrest was made after an officer was allegedly assaulted, the force added.

And one arrest was made on suspicion of a racially aggravated public order offence after a racist remark was allegedly directed at an officer, with the Met saying it had not been confirmed which protest the person was attending.

In separate action, a few hundred people gathered on the corner of Trafalgar Square for the United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC) march to Downing Street, where a letter was handed in for Sir Keir Starmer, in a protest over deaths in custody.

Activists held signs reading “No justice”, “no-one forgotten, nothing forgiven” and “no to hatred, no to fascism”, while others carried images of people they say died in custody.

The family of Chris Kaba, who was fatally shot by police marksman Martyn Blake – who was cleared of murder on Monday, attended the UFFC march.

Robinson, 41, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is accused of being in contempt of court after the airing of a film at a protest in Trafalgar Square in July.

He attended Folkestone police station on Friday where he was remanded ahead of a hearing at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday concerning allegations that he breached a 2021 High Court order barring him from repeating libellous allegations against a Syrian refugee who successfully sued him.

Tommy Robinson outside Folkestone Police Station (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

It is understood the airing of a film, titled Silenced, at the Trafalgar Square demonstration is one of six actions alleged to have breached the injunction between June and July.

The film is also pinned to the top of his X account.

Robinson was separately charged on Friday with failing to provide his mobile phone access code to police under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, Kent Police said.

The Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police were supported by officers from other forces across the country for the protests on Saturday, and before the protests the Met said there would be a “significant police presence” to ensure the two groups are kept apart.

Those attending the protest organised by Robinson marched from Victoria station to the southern end of Whitehall, while the counter-protest formed at Regent Street St James’s and finished at the northern end of Whitehall.

Many demonstrators on Robinson’s march hoisted Union and England flags – with several Make America Great Again flags in support of Donald Trump also in the crowd.

Some demonstrators wore “I am Peter Lynch” badges, in reference to a 61-year-old man who died in prison after being jailed for screaming abuse at riot police outside a hotel housing asylum seekers.

A stage was erected in Parliament Street where speeches and musical performances took place as demonstrators chanted “We want Tommy out”.

Interim Ukip leader Nick Tenconi was among the speakers at the demonstration.

And before the march started, chants of “Oh Tommy, Tommy” and “We want Starmer out” were heard.

The PA news agency understands Robinson will be held in custody in Folkestone until his court hearing on Monday.

He was released on unconditional bail in July and subsequently left the country, with Adam Payter, representing the Solicitor General, telling the High Court there “was nothing to prevent him from doing so”.

Mr Justice Johnson issued a warrant for Robinson’s arrest but ordered that it not be carried out “until early October” to allow Robinson time to indicate that he would attend the next hearing voluntarily or to apply to “set aside” the warrant.

Robinson posted a video of himself arriving at Luton Airport on October 20 and said he was surprised he had not been arrested.

He applied to set aside the warrant but his application was dismissed by Mr Justice Johnson on Friday.

The separate charge under the Terrorism Act relates to his arrest in July at a port in Kent, where he was accused of “frustration” of police counter-terrorism powers.

He allegedly failed to provide his mobile phone access code to officers at the Channel Tunnel in Folkestone.

Under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act, police are allowed to stop anyone passing through a UK port “to determine whether they may be involved or concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism”.

The person who is detained can be held for up to six hours, is legally obliged to answer questions and must provide the password or access number for electronic devices, or be held to have committed a criminal offence if they refuse.

Robinson said he objected to a request from police for the number to his phone because there was privileged information on the device relating to an ongoing High Court case.

Police vow robust action as Tommy Robinson march and counter protest take place in central London

Anthony France
Fri 25 October 2024

Police vow robust action as Tommy Robinson march and counter protest take place in central London


Police are braced for a huge march by far-right activist Tommy Robinson and counter-demonstrators in central London on Saturday.

Officers vowed to “deal decisively” with disorder and will be supported by other UK forces to ensure a “significant presence” keeps the two groups apart.

Thousands of supporters of Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, are due to hold a rally in Westminster, which is expected to be met with a rival protest from Stop the War campaigners.

Emotions are running high after Robinson - accused of stoking racial tensions during the summer riots while on holiday abroad - will miss his own planned protest after he was remanded into custody by police.

The 41-year-old is accused of being in contempt of court after the airing of a film in Trafalgar Square in July.

He attended Folkestone police station on Friday where he was separately charged with failing to provide his mobile phone access code to police under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, Kent Police said.

On Saturday, the protest organised by Robinson is due to march from London Victoria station to the southern end of Whitehall, while the counter-protest organised by Stand up to Racism will begin at Regent Street St James’s and finish at the north end of Whitehall.

The Metropolitan Police said static rallies are expected at the end of both marches.

Relatives of Chris Kaba are attending a separate protest led by the United Friends and Families Campaign taking place in Trafalgar Square from around midday.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Rachel Williams, who is leading the policing operation, said: “We are well prepared for what is set to be a busy day in the centre of London.

Tommy Robinson (centre) leads a protest march through London in June (David Parry/PA) (PA Wire)

“Our role is to ensure that those attending the various events can do so safely and that they can exercise their right to lawful protest.

“We will have significant resources in place to respond to any incidents, to deal decisively with any offences, and to keep disruption to other members of the public and businesses to a minimum.

“We know that when groups with opposing views come together it can lead to conflict and disorder, and a key part of our role is ensuring that does not happen.

“We have used Public Order Act conditions to ensure that those involved stick to routes and assembly areas that are sufficiently far apart. Officers will be monitoring closely to ensure that conditions are adhered to.”

Ms Williams continued: “The impact of frequent significant protest in central London is considerable, not least on the officers deployed to police them.

“Many would be working in other frontline roles if they weren’t required for these events.

“We’re grateful for the assistance of colleagues from other forces whose contribution means we are able to police protests while also keeping local communities across London safe.”

Robinson is due to appear at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday for a two-day contempt hearing.


It followed the airing of a film, titled Silenced, repeating libellous allegations about Syrian refugee Jamal Hijazi at a protest in central London.

Mr Hijazi successfully sued Robinson after the then-schoolboy was assaulted at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, in October 2018.

After a clip of the incident went viral, Robinson made false claims, including about Mr Hijazi attacking girls in his school, leading to the libel case.

Mr Justice Nicklin ordered Robinson to pay Mr Hijazi £100,000 in damages and his legal costs, as well as making the injunction preventing Robinson from repeating the allegations.


Tommy Robinson to miss planned protest after being remanded into custody

Josh Payne, PA Chief Reporter
Fri 25 October 2024 


Scroll back up to restore default view.


Political activist Tommy Robinson will miss his own planned march for thousands of people after being remanded into custody by police.

The 41-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is accused of being in contempt of court following the airing of a film at a protest in central London.

He attended Folkestone Police station on Friday where he was separately charged with failing to provide his mobile phone Pin to police under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, Kent Police said.

Robinson is due to appear at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday for a two-day hearing concerning allegations he breached a 2021 High Court order barring him from repeating libellous allegations against a Syrian refugee who successfully sued him.

It is understood the airing of a film, titled Silenced, at a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in July is one of six actions claimed to have breached the injunction between June and July this year.

The film is also pinned to the top of his X, formerly Twitter, account.

Supporters of Robinson are due to hold a demonstration on Saturday, which is expected to be met with a counter-protest organised by Stand Up to Racism.

The Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police are due to be supported by officers from other forces across the country as the Met said there will be a “significant police presence” to ensure the two groups are kept apart.

The PA news agency understands Robinson will be held in custody in Folkestone until his court hearing on Monday.

He was released on unconditional bail in July and subsequently left the country, with Adam Payter, representing the Solicitor General, telling the High Court there “was nothing to prevent him from doing so”.

Mr Justice Johnson issued a warrant for Robinson’s arrest but ordered that it not be carried out “until early October” to allow Robinson time to indicate that he would attend the next hearing voluntarily or to apply to “set aside” the warrant.

Tommy Robinson has been remanded into custody (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Robinson posted a video of himself arriving at Luton Airport on October 20 and said he was surprised he had not been arrested.

The activist applied to set aside the warrant but his application was dismissed by Mr Justice Johnson on Friday.

Kent Police said Robinson was separately charged with an offence under the Terrorism Act, and he was bailed in relation to that matter.

It follows his arrest in July at a port in Kent where he was accused of “frustration” of police counter-terrorism powers.

He has now been charged under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 after allegedly failing to provide his mobile phone Pin to officers at the Channel Tunnel in Folkestone.

Under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act, police are allowed to stop anyone passing through a UK port “to determine whether they may be involved or concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism”.

The person who is detained can be held for up to six hours, is legally obliged to answer questions and must provide the password or Pin for electronic devices, or be held to have committed a criminal offence if they refuse.

Robinson said he objected to a request from police for the Pin to his phone because there was privileged information on the device relating to an ongoing High Court case.

On Saturday, the protest organised by Robinson is due to march from Victoria station to the southern end of Whitehall, while the counter-protest organised by Stand up to Racism will begin at Regent Street St James’s and finish at the north end of Whitehall.

The Met said static rallies are expected at the end of both marches.

Tommy Robinson outside Folkestone Police Station (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Rachel Williams, who is leading the policing operation, said: “We are well prepared for what is set to be a busy day in the centre of London.

“Our role is to ensure that those attending the various events can do so safely and that they can exercise their right to lawful protest.

“We will have significant resources in place to respond to any incidents, to deal decisively with any offences, and to keep disruption to other members of the public and businesses to a minimum.

“We know that when groups with opposing views come together it can lead to conflict and disorder, and a key part of our role is ensuring that does not happen.

“We have used Public Order Act conditions to ensure that those involved stick to routes and assembly areas that are sufficiently far apart. Officers will be monitoring closely to ensure that conditions are adhered to.”

Ms Williams continued: “The impact of frequent significant protest in central London is considerable, not least on the officers deployed to police them.

“Many would be working in other frontline roles if they weren’t required for these events.

“We’re grateful for the assistance of colleagues from other forces whose contribution means we are able to police protests while also keeping local communities across London safe.”

Tommy Robinson charged by police under Terrorism Act after returning to UK

Howard Lloyd

WALES ONLINE
Fri 25 October 2024

-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)

Political activist Tommy Robinson will miss his own planned march for thousands of people after being remanded into custody by police. The 41-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is accused of being in contempt of court following the airing of a film at a protest in central London.

He attended Folkestone Police station on Friday where he was separately charged with failing to provide his mobile phone pin to police under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, Kent Police said. Robinson is due to appear at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday for a two-day hearing concerning allegations he breached a 2021 High Court order barring him from repeating libellous allegations against a Syrian refugee who successfully sued him.

Supporters of Robinson are due to hold a demonstration on Saturday, which is expected to be met with a counter-protest organised by Stand Up to Racism.

The Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police are due to be supported by officers from other forces across the country as the Met said there will be a “significant police presence” to ensure the two groups are kept apart.

After promising full self-driving updates for years, Elon Musk finally admits that most existing Teslas may never be able to drive themselves

Jeremy Laird

PC GAMER
Fri, October 25, 2024 

Credit: Tesla

Pretty much every year for the last five years, Elon Musk has promised that a full self-driving update for existing Tesla cars was just a year or so away. But now the Tesla CEO has dramatically changed his tune. It may not happen, after all.

In a conference call discussing the electric car company's financial results (via Electrek) Musk dropped a veritable bomb when he said, "there is some chance that HW3 does not achieve the safety level that allows for unsupervised FSD."


To unpick that statement, "HW3" refers to the self-driving computer that Tesla began fitting to its models since 2019, while "FSD" refers to Full Self Driving and in turn broadly indicates what's known as Level 4 and 5 autonomous driving.

For the record, Level 4 enables fully autonomous driving within a limited geo-fenced area. Typically, you'll still need a driver on board, plus controls. Meanwhile, Level 5 is the ultimate autonomous solution, the full no-driver, no-steering-wheel, go-anywhere experience.

So, the point is that Musk has been promising an "FSD" update for HW3-equipped Teslas for years. And now he's saying that may no longer be the case. Indeed, Musk has said, "we don't actually know the answer" to the question of whether HW3 can eventually be made FSD-capable.

If this sounds like a total disaster, in mitigation Musk says that Tesla owners with HW3 installed will be offered a free upgrade to the latest HW4 self-driving computer, introduced last year.

"HW4 has several times the capability of HW3. It’s easier to get things to work on HW4 and it takes a lot of efforts to squeeze that into HW3," Musk said of the new self-driving computer.

Tesla does has form in this area, having implemented a retrofit upgrade from HW2 to HW3 modules for some cars. Problem is, some observers doubt whether existing Tesla models can actually be upgraded to HW4.

According to Electrek, HW4 has new power and camera harnesses and the entire computer is a different form factor that wouldn't necessarily just slot into the installation location for HW3 on existing Tesla cars.

At the very least, it seems likely that a custom HW4 iteration would need to be engineered for retrofit purposes. What's more, although Musk describes HW3's camera systems as "capable" of FSD, HW4's cameras offer five times the resolution. HW4 cameras also have much improved low-light performance. Presumably, there's a reason for those upgrades.

If swapping out HW3 units for a custom-designed retrofit HW4 module on existing Teslas with HW3 sounds like a monumental liability all on its own, the idea of also tearing out all eight HW3 cameras and replacing them with upgraded units has to be a non starter.

Even then, you'd be left with the question of whether HW4 itself will be capable of FSD. Musk seems confident it will. But then he has been bullish for years about achieving full self driving with HW3.

All of which means that, just like a sensibly priced mid-range Nvidia GPU, Tesla's self-driving very much remains one of those technologies that sits tantalisingly on the horizon—visible, almost tangible, very much imaginable, but always just out of reach and seemingly never actually getting any closer to arriving.

Fox News edited Trump’s rambling answers and false claims in barbershop interview, full video shows

Fox News · CNN Business

Brian Stelter and Liam Reilly, CNN
Thu, October 24, 2024 

The Fox News Channel’s recent segment about Donald Trump’s “surprise” visit to a barbershop in the Bronx resembled a campaign ad for the former president’s reelection.

Trump was seen taking questions and making small talk with Black and Hispanic barbershop customers and workers, some of whom were wearing “Make Barbers Great Again” shirts. The visit was part of “Fox & Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones’ ongoing barbershop interview series.

But the version of the visit shown on television was, to borrow a hairstyle metaphor, a crop cut. Fox edited out many of Trump’s rambling comments and false claims. Participants had to repeatedly follow up when Trump meandered away from the original point of their questions.

CNN reviewed a more complete video of the barbershop visit that was uploaded to Instagram on the day of Trump’s appearance in the Bronx and compared it to the segments that were shown on “Fox & Friends” on Monday.

Fox’s edits omitted numerous Trump tangents and exaggerations – a striking decision given Trump’s recent attacks on CBS newsmagazine “60 Minutes” for editing an interview with his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, earlier this month.

Trump’s complaints about “60 Minutes” center on an edit of Harris’ comment about the relationship between Israel and the United States. He has charged that CBS manipulated the Harris interview to “make her look better” and demanded that CBS release the unedited transcript of the interview, which CBS has declined to do.

Ironically, however, Fox edited several of Trump’s recent appearances on the network, including his visit to the barbershop. And some of the edits certainly make him look better.

The televised broadcast omitted Trump’s comments about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. He told the barbershop customers that “they just dumped 50,000 people — 32,000 migrants from another country — in Springfield, Ohio. They don’t know what to do.” The actual number of migrants in Springfield is far lower, according to the city’s own data. The broadcast also left out Trump’s gross exaggerations about crime in Aurora, Colorado.

One of the most telling parts of the dialogue began when an audience member asked Trump about finding a way to eliminate federal taxes in the future. On Fox, Trump was shown immediately answering affirmatively: “There is a way.”

But that response from Trump actually came more than seven minutes later, after Trump (and Jones) brought up other topics, including inheritances, the Keystone Pipeline, Ronald Reagan, Russia, and transgender sports players. Trump had to be nudged back on track several times by the unnamed audience member, who kept circling back, apologetically, and said “I wasn’t able to finish my question.” After he repeated his tax inquiry yet again, Trump said “there is a way.”

But on Fox, it was stitched together as one seamless back-and-forth.

Fox also cut some of the former president’s insults, as when he mocked the Wall Street Journal, a sister property of Fox. “Don’t listen” to the “Wall Street jerks or Wall Street Journal, cause they don’t get it,” Trump told the barbershop audience.

In another unplayed portion of the visit, Trump praised Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban and called him a “very respected guy.” That exchange underscored Trump’s tendency to favor autocratic leaders, but Fox decided not to share it with viewers.

A Fox News spokeswoman said every one of Jones’ barbershop segments are pretaped and edited. The Bronx edition ran for nearly an hour and was cut for time and clarity, the network said.

Trump’s recent appearance on the Fox News program “MediaBuzz” was also pretaped and edited. One obvious edit occurred when Trump began to repeat his false claims about the 2020 election – a sensitive subject for Fox since the network is still dealing with defamation lawsuits relating to its coverage in 2020.

“They came down to protest a rigged election,” Trump said, referring to January 6. Then there was a sudden cut, suggesting that some of Trump’s distortions were removed.

Joe Rogan Quizzes Trump On Election Fraud Claims: 'Give Me Some Examples'

Hilary Hanson
Sat, October 26, 2024 

Podcaster Joe Rogan pressed former President Donald Trump on Friday about his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him.

“You’ve said over and over again that you were robbed in 2020,” said Rogan, who hosts the popular and controversial “Joe Rogan Experience.”

“How do you think you were robbed?” he continued.

Trump tried to pivot.

“Well, what I’d rather do is, we’ll do it another time,” said the Republican, who’s now seeking to retake the White House. “And I would bring in papers that you would not believe. So many different papers. That election was so crooked. It was the most crooked election.”

Rogan tried to extract more specifics:

Rogan: OK, but give me some examples of how.

Trump: Well, let’s start on the top and the easy ones. They were supposed to get legislative approval to do the things they did, and they didn’t get it. In many cases, they didn’t get it.

Rogan: What things?

Trump: Anything.

Rogan: Legislative approval of?

Trump: Like for extensions of the voting, for voting earlier, for this — all different things. By law, they had to get legislative approvals. You don’t have to go any further than that.

Trump’s claim about legislative approvals is seemingly related to an argument from some Republicans that state officials changed certain election procedures in 2020 without proper authorization. In 2021, the fact-checking site PolitiFact called this a “flawed argument” in a detailed explainer on the legal issues involved.

Speaking to Rogan, Trump went on: “If you take a look at Wisconsin, they virtually admitted that the election was rigged, robbed and stolen. They wouldn’t give access in certain areas to the ballots because the ballots weren’t signed. They weren’t originals. They were — we could go into this stuff. We could go into the ballots, or we could go into the overall.”

In 2021, a nonpartisan audit of Wisconsin’s 2020 election found that although some absentee ballots had only partial witness signatures, the vote was — in the words of a GOP leader on the state Legislature’s Audit Committee — “largely safe and secure.” Only eight ballots were missing a witness signature altogether, and only three were missing a voter signature.

“Are you going to present this ever?” Rogan asked Trump, to which the Republican responded, “Uh.”

That exchange swiftly made it into social media posts from the Democratic campaign of Trump’s 2024 rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Do you think, like — ” Rogan then started to ask, before Trump cut him off.

“Let me give you just one more,” he said. Trump then asserted that controversy around a laptop owned by Democrat Joe Biden’s son ― and false speculation by intelligence officials that stories about the laptop could be Russian disinformation ― significantly swayed the 2020 election in Biden’s favor.

Rogan’s three-hour conversation with Trump delayed a Michigan rally for the Republican, leaving his supporters waiting in the cold for him to appear.

NO ENDORSEMENT

Donald Trump Practically Demands Joe Rogan To Endorse Him

Kelly Coffey-Behrens

THE BLAST
Sat, October 26, 2024

Former President Donald Trump recorded a nearly three-hour episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" on Friday, taking his message to the nation's most-listened-to podcast.

Naturally, the two aren’t unfamiliar with each other—Trump and Rogan have crossed paths at UFC events on multiple occasions over the years, as Trump is a frequent attendee. The appearance on Rogen's podcast comes as Trump aims to expand his reach among young male voters—a demographic in which Rogan holds considerable influence.

In typical rally-style, Donald Trump’s conversation with Joe Rogan touched on a mix of topics, ranging from his appearance on "The View" during his first campaign, hosting "The Apprentice," and even UFOs and dead whales.

Donald Trump Wanted A Public Endorsement From Joe Rogan

MEGA

Trump made his long-awaited debut on "The Joe Rogan Experience" Friday night, and from the looks of it, the former president wasn’t about to leave without securing a public endorsement—right then and there!

Trump flaunted his "nicest endorsement" from Elon Musk before nudging Rogan with, "You should do the same thing, Joe."

The relentless former President of the United States pressed Rogan, dismissing any chance of him supporting Kamala Harris, even joking, "You're a Khabib [Nurmagomedov] person, but you're not a Kamala person," which earned a genuine laugh from Rogan, referencing the UFC superstar.

Despite Trump’s persistent urging, Rogan didn’t commit to endorsing him—at least, not yet—and notably didn’t rule out the possibility down the line.
Donald Trump Reveals The ‘Biggest Mistake’ He Made During His First-Term

MEGA

According to Trump, in his conversation with Rogan, he expressed regret over certain appointments made during his first term:

"The one question that you'll ask me that I think you'll ask me that people seem to ask -- and I always come up with the same answer – if I, the one mistake because I had a lot of success, great economy, great, everything was great with the military rebuilt the biggest tax cuts in history, all the stuff we did, we had a great presidency.

Three Supreme Court justices. Most people get none. You know, you pick them young this way. They're there for 50 years. Right. So, you know, even if a president is there for eight years, oftentimes they never have a chance. I had three. It was the luck of the draw."

But I will say that it always comes back to the same answer. The biggest mistake I made was I picked some people, I picked some great people, you know, but you don't think about that. I picked some people that I shouldn't have picked. I picked a few people that I shouldn't have picked."

Rogan chimed in, "And neocons," to which Trump immediately followed up, "Yeah, neocons or bad people or disloyal people."

Joe Rogan Has Previously Said Donald Trump Is Not A Dictator

Instagram | Joe Rogan

On a September 11, 2024, episode, Rogan remarked that Trump’s first term in office wasn’t as extreme as many had initially feared it might be.

"Everyone's saying he's going to be a dictator. Well, he wasn't a dictator. He was the president," Rogan said at the time. "He actually was the president for four years and the economy really did well and he really did try to cut some of the bullsh-t down that's going on in this country."

However, Rogan noted that voters seemed to wrestle more with Trump’s personality than with his policies, telling his listeners, "We don't necessarily want that as the guy with his finger on the button."
Joe Rogan Previously Declined To Interview Donald Trump

MEGA

Back in July 2022, Rogan openly shared that he had turned down multiple chances to interview Trump, making it clear he was “not a Trump supporter in any way, shape, or form.”


“I’ve had the opportunity to have him on my show more than once—I’ve said no every time. I don’t want to help him. I’m not interested in helping him,” Rogan stated firmly.

In that same episode, Rogan speculated that Trump would end up running “against a dead man,” a pointed reference to President Joe Biden, who was widely expected to be the Democratic candidate.
Joe Rogan Says Donald Trump 'Might Be A Sociopath'

MEGA

In a September 2023 episode featuring Bill Maher, Rogan seemed to present Biden and Trump as equally flawed—a comparison Maher strongly rejected.

"He might be crazy," Rogen said. "He might be a sociopath."

Why Joe Rogan Is Being Dubbed A 'Coward' After Hosting Donald Trump On Podcast

Kelly Coffey-Behrens

THE BLAST
Sat, October 26, 2024 


On Friday night, former president Donald Trump finally made his much-anticipated debut on Joe Rogan's podcast, "The Joe Rogan Experience," and it seemed the former president had his sights set on securing a public endorsement before the episode wrapped.

The 45th President of the United States brought up his "nicest endorsement" from Elon Musk before urging Rogan, "You should do the same thing, Joe."

Despite Donald Trump’s repeated encouragement, Joe Rogan stopped short of an endorsement—and he is now being labeled a "coward."

Donald Trump Appears on Joe Rogan's Podcast

MEGA

The three-hour interview between Republican presidential nominee Trump and Rogan, America’s top podcaster, has finally dropped.

In their expansive conversation, Trump touches on topics ranging from the “biggest mistake” of his time in the White House to his interactions with North Korea’s leader and even speculations on extraterrestrial life.

Notably, Rogan once labeled Trump “an existential threat to democracy” and declined multiple invitations to host him. However, the two appeared on friendly terms during Friday’s chat, bonding over their shared interest in the "Ultimate Fighting Championship" and mutual friends like Elon Musk.

#JoeRoganIsACoward Trends On X

At one point, Trump joked, "You're a Khabib [Nurmagomedov] person, but you're not a Kamala person," drawing a genuine laugh from Rogan as he referenced the UFC icon and attempted to get an endorsement from Rogan. Though, it wasn't enough because Rogan never actually endorsed the former president.

Following the release of the podcast episode, social media users took to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, using the hashtag #JoeRoganIsACoward to express their feelings.

"History will be remembered by who stood by and did nothing. #joeRoganisacoward," one user said.

"Hilarious how many pro Trump guys Rogan has had on his podcast," another began. "You would’ve thought he’d come prepared or at LEAST give a descent follow up question. Congrats Joe, you played yourself, and you are no worse than #foxnews #JoeRoganIsACoward."

"Let’s get it trending," another said, adding the hashtag #JoeRoganIsACoward.
Joe Rogan Previously Declined To Interview Donald Trump

Instagram | Joe Rogan

While Rogan has not publicly endorsed Trump, he has been publicly tied to the former president, having crossed paths at UFC events on multiple occasions over the years.



Additionally, back in July 2022, the podcaster candidly revealed that he had declined several opportunities to interview Trump, stating firmly that he was “not a Trump supporter in any way, shape, or form.”

“I’ve had the opportunity to have him on my show more than once—I’ve said no every time. I don’t want to help him. I’m not interested in helping him,” he stated at the time.

Plus, in a September 2023 episode featuring Bill Maher, Rogan said, "He might be crazy. He might be a sociopath," describing Trump.
Joe Rogan Supported RFK Jr.

MEGA

In August, Rogan voiced his support for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., offering praise for his campaign.

"I am a fan. He's the only one to make sense to me. He's the only one that doesn't attack people. He attacks actions and ideas, but he's much more reasonable and intelligent," Rogan said during an episode of his podcast.

The following day, Rogan clarified his remarks in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, emphasizing that his praise for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was not an “endorsement.”

"For the record, this isn't an endorsement. This is me saying that I like RFK Jr as a person, and I really appreciate the way he discusses things with civility and intelligence," Rogan wrote at the time. "I think we could use more of that in this world."
More On Joe Rogan's Controversial Podcast

Known for his marathon-length interviews on "The Joe Rogan Experience," which consistently ranks as the No. 1 podcast in the United States on Spotify’s charts, Rogan has stirred controversy over his casual language, often referring to women as “chicks.”

He also drew criticism for laughing during a conversation in which a comedian friend recounted instances of pressuring young female comics into sex.

Recently, he received immense backlash after saying “the idea that Jewish people are not into money is ridiculous."


Joe Rogan asked Donald Trump for specifics on how 2020 was stolen. Then could only laugh at the answer

Alex Lang
Sat, October 26, 2024 

THE INDEPENDENT

Joe Rogan asked Donald Trump for specifics on how 2020 was stolen. Then could only laugh at the answer

Joe Rogan could be seen laughing as he pressed former president Donald Trump for specifics on how the election was stolen in 2020.

The Republican nominee sat down Friday for an interview with the No. 1 podcaster. The interview ran for three hours and delayed Trump’s appearance in Traverse City, Michigan, later in the day.

At one point, Trump and Rogan started to discuss the 2020 election.

“I won by like,” Trump said, “I lost by like…I didn’t lose.


Rogan could then be seen laughing.

“They say I lost, Joe, they say I lost by 22,000 votes,” Trump continued. “That’s like one one-tenth of one percent, it’s less than that. It’s a tiny little thing. Twenty-two thousand votes that’s spread all over this period.

“Fifty-one intelligent agents lied, they lied, they knew it was Hunter’s, it was from his bed. They said it was created by Russia. Russia, Russia, Russia. It was the Russia hoax.”

Donald Trump sat down with Joe Rogan for a podcast interview. At one point, Rogan could only laugh as Trump rambled when asked about how the 2020 election was stolen (Joe Rogan Experience)

That exchange came as Rogan continued to ask Trump for examples of how the 2020 election was “crooked” as Trump claimed.

“Let’s start at the top and the easy ones. They were supposed to get legislative approval to do the things they did, and they didn’t get it in many cases, they didn’t get it,” Trump said.

Rogan asked what the “things” were, and the Republican nominee could only say “anything.”

“Like for extensions of the voting, for voting earlier. All these different things by law, they had to get legislative approvals. You don’t have to go any further than that,” the 78-year-old nominee said.

“If you take a look at Wisconsin, they virtually admitted that the election was rigged, robbed, and stolen. They wouldn’t give access in certain areas to the ballots because the ballots weren’t signed. They weren’t originals. They were– we could go into this stuff. We could go into the ballots, or we could go into the overall. I’ll give you another way.”

The podcaster then asked Trump if he would ever present the evidence, Trump responded with “uh.” He then went into a rant about Russia and Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Trump has made his stolen election claim a central part of his campaign against Democratic rival Kamala Harris (AFP via Getty Images)

Despite there being no evidence of mass election fraud, Trump continues to push the idea that the election was stolen. It’s become a centerpiece of his campaign against Democratic rival Kamala Harris.

Earlier this month, during a Michigan rally, Trump addressed his stolen election claims as he spoke soon after prosecutor Jack Smith made a filing in the federal criminal case against the former president accusing him of election interference.

“You know last time, last election, we did great in 2016, a lot of people don’t know we did much better in 2020,” Trump told the crowd on October 4. “We won, we won, we did win. It was a rigged election, it was a rigged election.

“You have to tell Kamala Harris, that’s why I’m doing it again, if I thought I lost, I wouldn’t be doing this again. You know where I’d be right now, on the beaches of Monte Carlo maybe, or some place. Be having a nice life.”

Fact check: Trump revives his lie that schools are secretly sending children for gender-affirming surgeries

Daniel Dale, CNN
Sat, October 26, 2024 



Former President Donald Trump continues to repeat his lie that US schools are sending children for gender-affirming surgeries without their parents’ consent — even though his own presidential campaign could not find a single example of this having happened.

Trump debuted the tale in late August. It was debunked by CNN and others in early September. But Trump, whose campaign has spent tens of millions of dollars on late-campaign attack ads related to transgender people, has revived the story in October as Election Day draws near.

Trump made the claim again last week while discussing education policy during a New York City barbershop discussion filmed by Fox News: “No transgender, no operations — you know, they take your kid — there are some places, your boy leaves for school, comes back a girl. Okay? Without parental consent.” He added, “At first, when I was told that was actually happening, I said, you know, it’s an exaggeration. No: it happens. It happens. There are areas where it happens.”

Trump didn’t name these supposed “areas.” But he made the claim once more during his Friday interview with prominent podcast host Joe Rogan: “Who would want to have — there’s so many — the transgender operations: where they’re allowed to take your child when he goes to school and turn him into a male — to a female — without parental consent.”

Facts First: Trump’s claim remains false. There is no evidence that schools in any part of the United States have sent children for gender-affirming surgeries without their parents’ approval, or performed unapproved gender-affirming surgeries on site; none of that is “allowed” anywhere in the country. Even in the states where gender-affirming surgery is legal for people under age 18, parental consent is required before a minor can undergo such a procedure.

Trump’s campaign and four conservative groups contacted by CNN in September about Trump’s claim were unable to find any evidence for it. Experts on health care for transgender people said the situation Trump described simply does not happen in this country.

Landon Hughes, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a co-author of a recent study on the prevalence of gender-affirming surgery in the US, said in a September email: “There are no instances of children receiving surgeries or access to surgeries from their schools.” Hughes added: “No provider in the US would perform surgery on a minor under the direction of a school, let alone without parental consent.”




“Of course everything in this statement is false,” Dr. Meredithe McNamara, an adolescent medicine physician at the Yale School of Medicine, said in a September email. “Of course surgery of any kind happens in a qualified medical center and not in a school. Of course parents are the medical decision-makers for their kids, especially when it comes to gender-affirming care.”

For minors, parental consent is also required in the US for non-surgical gender-affirming medical treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy. Various guidelines and standards for medical care of transgender adolescents from entities including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health explain that parental consent is needed.

“Any gender-affirming medical care or surgical care would legally require the consent of (both) parents/legal guardians and assent of an adolescent under 18,” Dr. Laura Taylor, medical director of the gender-affirming care program at the University of Southern California, said in a September email. “This includes puberty blockers, hormones, and surgery.”

There are no definitive national figures on the number of minors who receive gender-affirming surgeries, which include breast or chest procedures, often called “top surgery,” and genital reconstructive procedures, often called “bottom surgery.” But the limited available data makes it clear that the vast majority of such surgeries occur among adults.

Taylor outlined a lengthy process before a minor might undergo a gender-affirming surgery.

“In adolescents, the decision to start hormones and/or have surgery would happen after consultation with an interdisciplinary team for a psychosocial assessment,” she said, the bold type hers. “The assessment includes understanding the dysphoria related to gender incongruence (the distress caused by the physical characteristics that do not match the person’s identity), how long it has been present, excluding other reasons to account for the dysphoria, and making sure the adolescent and family can provide informed consent.”

Asked in September for any evidence for Trump’s claim that schools are secretly obtaining gender-affirming surgeries for children, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt provided none. Instead, she sent a series of articles on the broader debate over how schools handle gender identity issues.

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

BBC Journalist’s Question Prompts Intense Response From Russian President Vladimir Putin
Jesse Whittock
Fri, October 25, 2024 



A BBC journalist has provoked an intense response from Russian President Vladimir Putin at the BRICS summit for emerging economies.

BBC Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg was granted the opportunity to quiz Putin during a press conference, and chose to ask about how Russia’s actions over the past two years matched a declaration made by the BRICS countries for global security, stability and justice.

It was the first time a journalist from the British organization has been allowed to directly question the Russian leader since Putin’s troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Putin flipped the question on its head and accused Western countries of aggressively expanding the North American-European alliance NATO east towards Russia.

“In terms of security, is it fair that for years our constant appeal to partners not to expand Nato to the east have been ignored,” he asked. “Is it fair to lie to our face, promising that there will be no such expansion and violating their obligations and their promises to do that? Is it fair to get into our underbelly, like into Ukraine, and start building, not just preparing but building, military bases?

He accused NATO of “disregarding international law” and “financing a coup” in Ukraine, while “pushing the situation for it to develop into a hot phase.”

He finished his criticism, which lasted several minutes, by saying: “There is no justice here. We want to change this situation, and we’ll achieve it,” and then addressed a second part of Rosenberg’s question, which regarded MI5, the British intelligence service, claiming Russia was deliberately attempting to create “sustained mayhem on British and European streets.”

“Well, this is utter rubbish,” said the Russian leader.

You can watch part of the exchange here via the BBC’s YouTube channel.

HISTORIC APOLOGY; ABOUT TIME

Biden apologizes to Native Americans for 150 years of abusive government-funded boarding schools

Michael Williams, CNN
Fri, October 25, 2024 

President Joe Biden speaks at the Gila River Crossing School in the Gila River Indian Community, in Laveen Village, near Phoenix, Arizona, on October 25.

President Joe Biden on Friday formally apologized to Native Americans for what he described as “one of the most horrific chapters in American history,” government-funded boarding schools that abused indigenous children and forced them to assimilate over a 150-year period.

“Quite frankly, there is no excuse that this apology took 150 years to make,” Biden said in Laveen, Arizona, after calling for a moment of silence to “remember those lost and the generations living with that trauma.”

At least 18,000 children were taken from their families and forced to attend more than 400 boarding schools across 37 states or then-territories between 1819 and 1969. Three years ago, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary, commissioned the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative to review the schools’ impacts on Native Americans.

Their final report, issued this summer, found at least 973 Native American children died while attending these federal boarding schools.

“As president,” Biden said on Friday, “I believe it is important that we do know there were generations of native children stolen, taken away to places they didn’t know, with people they never met, who spoke a language they had never heard.”

“Native communities silenced – their children’s laughter and play were gone,” he added. “… Children abused emotionally, physically and sexually abused, forced into hard labor, some put up for adoption without the consent of their birth parents, some left for dead and unmarked graves.”

Children who returned home, the president added, were “wounded in body and spirit.”

Biden’s remarks were made at the Gila Crossing Community School outside of Phoenix. It’s the first time he has visited Indian Country as president and the first time in 10 years a sitting president has visited tribal lands. Then-President Barack Obama paid a visit to the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation in 2014.

Biden acknowledged that “no apology can or will make up for what was lost during the darkness of the federal boarding school policy.”

But, the president added, “we’re finally moving forward into the light.”

The president was briefly interrupted during his remarks by two pro-Palestine protesters. He paused his speech to say that the killing of people in Gaza “has to stop.”

CNN’s Arlette Saenz contributed to this report.

Biden apology for Indian boarding schools interrupted by Gaza war protester

Gabriella Borter and Kanishka Singh
Fri, October 25, 2024 

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks in Gila River Indian Community

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks in Gila River Indian Community

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks in Gila River Indian Community

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks in Gila River Indian Community


LAVEEN VILLAGE, Arizona (Reuters) - President Joe Biden formally apologized on Friday for the U.S. government's role in running abusive Native American boarding schools for more than 150 years, and was heckled at the event over his support for Israel's war in Gaza.

"This to me is one of the most consequential things I've ever had an opportunity to do in my whole career," Biden said in his apology at an outdoor football and track field in Laveen Village, Arizona, near Phoenix.

"It's a sin on our soul. ... I formally apologize."

Several hundred people attended, many of them in traditional tribal dress. They cheered as Biden apologized for the generational trauma faced by the Native American community due to the boarding schools across the country.

Biden faced a brief interruption when a pro-Palestinian protester shouted: "How can you apologize for a genocide while committing a genocide in Palestine?"

The president replied, "There is a lot of innocent people being killed and it has to stop."

U.S. support for Israel's wars in Gaza and Lebanon after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel has led to months of demonstrations across the United States. Rights advocates have demanded an arms embargo against Israel as tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in the region, and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have grappled with hunger and disease.


Israel and Washington deny genocide allegations brought against Israel at the World Court in relation to Gaza, and Washington has maintained its support for its ally.

Friday's trip marked Biden's first time visiting Indian Country while in office and is part of his effort to cement his legacy in his final months in the White House.

Arizona is also one of the seven battleground states in a tight race for the Nov. 5 U.S. election in which Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris faces Republican former President Donald Trump.

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to be a cabinet secretary, had launched an investigation to recognize the troubled legacy of federal Native American boarding school policies.

An Interior Department investigative report released in July found that at least 973 children died in these schools. Haaland's family members were among the children forced into the boarding schools.

From 1819 through the 1970s, the United States implemented policies establishing and supporting hundreds of American Indian boarding schools across the U.S. Their purpose was to culturally assimilate Native Americans by forcibly removing them from their families, communities, religions and cultural beliefs.

Like the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada have in recent years reviewed past abuse toward Indigenous communities, including children in schools.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter in Laveen Village, Arizona, and Kanishka Singh in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Biden formally apologizes to Native Americans

Washington Post
Fri, October 25, 2024 


President Joe Biden is the first president to formally apologizes for the U.S. government’s role in running hundreds of Indian boarding schools for a 150-year period that stripped Native American children of their language and culture in a systematic effort to force them to assimilate into White society, at Gila Crossing Community School on the Gila River Indian Community outside Phoenix on October 25, 2024, in Laveen, AZ.


Biden apologizes for Native American boarding school policy he calls ‘blot’ on US history

Andrew Feinberg
Fri, October 25, 2024

President Joe Biden speaks at the Gila Crossing Community School, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, in Laveen, Ariz. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri) (Associated Press)


President Joe Biden formally apologized to Native Americans for the US government’s attempt to erase tribal culture via a system of boarding schools that separated native children from their parents for decades, calling the long-discarded policy “a sin on our soul.”

Speaking at the Gila Crossing Community School on the Gila River Indian Community Reservation in Laveen Village, Arizona, Biden said there was “no excuse” that it took a full half-century for the government to offer contrition for the system.

“I formally apologize as president of the United States of America for what we did,” he said on Friday.

The federal boarding school system routinely took Native American children from their families and forcibly re-educated them to stamp out native culture. The policy was in place from 1819 through the 1970s.

“The Federal Indian boarding school policy — the pain it has caused will only be a significant mark of shame, a blot on American history. For too long, this all happened with virtually no public attention, not written about in our history books, not taught in our schools.”

Biden also called the boarding school system “one of the most horrific chapters” in the nearly 250-year-old American story — even as it remains untold in most history books.

Biden’s interior secretary, Deb Haaland, is the first Native American cabinet member in US history (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

“As President, I believe it is important that we do know now generations of native children stolen, taken away to places they didn't know, with people they never met who spoke a language they had never heard,” he said, as he described how the children would arrive at schools to have their native clothes taken, their hair cut, and their names replaced with an English-language name.


Some children, he said, were “abused ... emotionally, physically and sexually,” with some “put up for adoption without the consent of their birth parents” and a number even “left for dead in unmarked graves.”

Roughly 1,000 Native American children are known to have died in the federally-run boarding schools, though Biden said the “real number” of deaths is “likely to be much, much higher” as he spoke of “lost generations” and the loss of “culture and language” as well as trust between native tribes and the federal government.

“I have a solemn responsibility to be the first president to formally apologize to the native peoples, Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Native Alaskans and federal Indian boarding schools. It's long, long, long overdue,” he said.

Biden added that while the policy may have been “too shameful to acknowledge” for some Americans, bringing the true history into the light is part of America’s responsibility as a “great nation.”


“We must know the good, the bad, the truth of who we are as a nation. That's what great nations do ... we do not erase history. We make history, we learn from history, and we remember so we can heal as a nation,” he said.

Biden’s visit comes as his onetime running-mate and potential successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, is in the final days of campaigning against former president Donald Trump.

In the key swing state of Arizona, Native Americans are an important voting bloc, and Democrats are hopeful that Biden’s visit to the Gila River reservation will provide a boost in voter turnout among the tribal nations.

Four years ago, Biden became the first Democrat to carry Arizona’s electoral votes in decades when he won the popular vote there by just over 10,000 votes.

AURORA, COLORADO THE REAL STORY

They came to America looking for better lives — and better schools. The results were mixed

Alisson Ramírez, right, listens to her social studies teacher during class Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)ASSOCIATED PRESS

Dylan Martínez-Ramírez sharpens his pencil before heading to school Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024, in Aurora, Colo. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)ASSOCIATED PRESS

BIANCA VÁZQUEZ TONESS
Sat, October 26, 2024

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — Starting seventh grade at her first American school, facing classes taught entirely in English, Alisson Ramirez steeled herself for rejection and months of feeling lost.

“I was nervous that people would ask me things and I wouldn’t know how to answer,” the Venezuelan teen says. “And I would be ashamed to answer in Spanish.”

But it wasn’t quite what she expected. On her first day in Aurora Public Schools in Colorado this past August, many of her teachers translated their classes’ relevant vocabulary into Spanish and handed out written instructions in Spanish. Some teachers even asked questions such as “terminado?” or “preguntas?” — Are you done? Do you have questions? One promised to study more Spanish to better support Alisson.


“That made me feel better,” says Alisson, 13.

Outside the classrooms, it’s a different story. While that school system is striving to accommodate more than 3,000 new students mostly from Venezuela and Colombia, the city government has taken the opposite approach. City Council has tried to dissuade Venezuelan immigrants from moving to Aurora by vowing not to spend any money helping newcomers. Officials plan to investigate the nonprofits who helped migrants settle in the Denver suburb.

When Aurora’s mayor spread unfounded claims of Venezuelan gangs taking over an apartment complex there, former president and current GOP candidate Donald Trump magnified the claims at his campaign rallies, calling Aurora a “war zone.” Immigrants are “poisoning” schools in Aurora and elsewhere with disease, he has said. “They don’t even speak English.”

Trump has promised that Aurora, population 400,000, will be one of the first places he launches his program to deport migrants if he’s elected.



This is life as a newcomer to the United States in 2024, home of the “American dream” and conflicting ideas about who can achieve it. Migrants arriving in this polarized country find themselves bewildered by its divisions.

Many came looking for better lives for their families. Now, they question whether this is even a good place to raise their children.

Rumors make life harder for immigrants in Aurora

Of course, it’s not always clear to Alisson’s family that they live in a discrete city called Aurora, with its own government and policies that differ from those of neighboring Denver and other suburbs. One thing has seemed obvious to her mother, Maria Angel Torres, 43, as she moves around Aurora and Denver looking for work or running errands: While some organizations and churches are eager to help, some people are deeply afraid of her and her family,



The fear first became apparent on a routine trip to the grocery store back in the spring. Torres was standing in line holding a jug of milk and other items when she moved a little too close to the young woman in front of her. The woman — a teen who spoke Spanish with an American accent — told Torres to keep her distance.

“It was humiliating,” says Torres. “I don’t look like a threat. But people here act like they feel terrorized.”

And when Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman — and then Trump — started talking about Venezuelan gangs taking over an apartment and the entire city of Aurora, Torres didn’t understand. While she didn’t believe that gangs had “taken over,” she worried that any bad press about Venezuelans would affect her and her family.

Keeping out dangerous people is important to Torres. The whole reason her family left Venezuela was to escape lawlessness and violence. They didn’t want it to follow them here.



In addition to Alisson, Torres has an older daughter — Gabriela Ramirez, 27. Ramirez’s partner, Ronexi Bocaranda, 37, owned a food truck selling hot dogs and hamburgers. Bocaranda says government workers in Venezuela extorted a bribe from him known as a “vacuna,” or vaccine, because paying it ensures protection from harassment. He paid them the equivalent of $500, about half a week’s earnings, to continue operating.

The next week, when Bocaranda refused to pay, the government workers stabbed him in the bicep; the one-inch scar remains visible on his left arm. The men threatened to kill Ramirez and her young son, who were both at the food truck that day. Bocaranda sold the business, and the family, including Torres and Alisson, all fled to Colombia.

A little over two years later, the family headed north on foot through the Darién Gap. In Mexico, they crossed the border in Juarez and turned themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol. They all have deportation hearings in 2025, where they will have the opportunity to plead their case for asylum based on the threats against Bocaranda, Ramirez and her son. In the meantime, they have settled in Aurora, after hearing about the Denver area from a family who helped them on their journey to the U.S.

Torres and her daughter tried to get their kids into school soon after they arrived in Aurora in February, but they were confused by the vaccination requirements. Could the kids enter school with the vaccinations they received in Venezuela and Colombia, or would they have to get all new shots? Would they have to pay for each one, potentially costing hundreds of dollars per child?



Alisson and Dylan stayed home for months. Dylan played math or first-person shooter games. Alisson watched crafting videos on TikTok. When they finally entered school in the fall, Gabriela Ramirez and Torres both hoped instruction would be in English, believing their children would learn the language faster that way.

Times have changed in Aurora

If they’d arrived in Aurora, say, three years ago, that might have been what they encountered.

Aurora is accustomed to educating immigrants’ children. More than a third of residents speak a language other than English at home, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. Immigrants and refugees have been attracted to Aurora’s proximity to Denver and its relatively lower cost of living.



But the sudden arrival of so many students from Venezuela and Colombia who didn’t speak English caught some Aurora schools off guard. Before, a teacher in the 38,000-student school system might have had one or two newcomer students in her class. Now, teachers in some schools have as many as 10, or a third of their classroom roster.

When Marcella Garcia visited classrooms where only English was spoken, she noticed the newcomers weren’t talking. “Kids were being left out and not able to engage,” says Garcia, principal at Aurora Hills Middle School.

The schools reached out for advice and training from the district’s central office, which recommended a strategy called “translanguaging.” That means using Spanish at times to help students make meaning of the English lessons and conversations happening around them.

It’s not clear how much it’s helping students learn — it’s too soon to tell — or if the school is striking the right balance between translating for newcomers and forcing them to engage in what teachers call a “friendly struggle” to understand and learn English.



But the approach has helped Alisson feel more at ease. On her first day of school, her social studies teacher, a bald man with tattooed forearms and a gruff teaching persona, didn’t translate anything or use Spanish in his presentation. “I thought about sitting there and not saying anything,” Alisson remembers. “But then I thought, 'I’m here to learn.’”

She and a friend approached the teacher during class. Now Jake Emerson is one of her favorite teachers.

On a Wednesday in September, Alisson and her friends were sitting at a round table in the back of Emerson’s class. They spoke Spanish among themselves as Emerson spoke to the rest of the class about the drawing he was projecting on the large screen in the front of the class.

It was a scene from an ancient Egyptian marketplace. “What do you think this dude here is doing with the basket?” Emerson asked the class. The students at Alisson’s table kept talking, even as Emerson spoke. One girl who’d been in Aurora schools longer than the rest translated for Alisson and the other teens.



Before the school adopted this new approach, teachers may have shut down a conversation among students in Spanish. “If I saw two students speaking Spanish, I assumed they were off topic,” says Assistant Principal John Buch. Now, he says students are encouraged to help each other in any language they can.

So far, there appears to be little public pushback in the district against this approach. It generally requires more work for teachers, who have to translate materials or their own speech in real time.

While teachers try out new Spanish vocabulary, English-speaking students show a range of responses. Some seem bored or annoyed by their teachers’ sudden interest in speaking Spanish in class. Bilingual students appear proud when they can help teachers trying to use more Spanish in class.

Still, some English-speaking and bilingual students have harassed Alisson. A few weeks after school started, a group of boys tried to stop her from sitting in her seat in class. They called her ugly and told her to go back to her country. When Alisson reported this to a teacher, nothing changed. “They say they don’t tolerate bullying,” she says. “But this is bullying.” Weeks later, the boys eventually stopped.



It's a delicate situation for both teachers and students

After spending most of the day in mainstream classes, Alisson and her newcomer peers let loose in a class called Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education. It’s the only class explicitly designed to help new immigrants speak English.

The teacher, Melissa Wesdyk, does not speak fluent Spanish. She recently started using Google Translate at times, as a simultaneous interpreter. She speaks her instructions into her laptop, and a slightly robotic voice says the instructions in Spanish.

The same is not available in Amharic or Farsi, languages spoken by two of the more than two dozen students in the class. For those two, she translates the instructions in writing and projects the words on a screen in the front of the room.

Wesdyk rarely smiles and remains serious as she runs the class. Perhaps that’s because the students are far more unruly than in Alisson’s others. Wesdyk acknowledges the relative chaos, but says it’s because the Spanish-speaking students are more comfortable in a class that’s almost exclusively Latin American immigrants.

One boy keeps standing on his chair during the lesson, and Wesdyk stops class at least four times to redirect him. “Por qué hablas?” she asks him. Why are you talking? Another time she says, “I need you to stop.”

The course also demands more of the students, whom Wesdyk presses into pronouncing words in unison and answering questions. It’s hard work, and her methods don’t always hit their mark.

Toward the end of the class, Wesdyk tells the class they are going to do a “whipshare.” Google doesn’t know how to translate that, so it just repeats the word in English. Each student is to share one of the words they wrote earlier, when the class was identifying English words for each letter of the alphabet.

When Alisson offers the word “pink” for the letter P, Wesdyk appears surprised and a little flustered. “That’s not one of the words I wrote down, but good word.”

For the letter F, another boy says “flor,” as in Spanish for flower. To observers, he seems to be trying to say “flower,” but mispronouncing it. Wesdyk doesn’t appear to understand. “Floor?” she says back to him. The boy repeats “flor,” and Wesdyk says, “Floor?” emphasizing the English R sound. The boy looks embarrassed.

In mid-September, Alisson’s mother receives messages from Aurora Public Schools that there have been rumors of bomb threats at its schools and others across the state. It’s not clear if the threats are related to Trump’s rhetoric about Venezuelan gangs taking over Aurora. After all, similar problems ensued after his false comments about pet-eating Haitians in Springfield, Ohio.

The school system’s messages say there is no truth to the bomb threat rumors, but that doesn’t make Torres and Alisson feel better. Torres still sends Allison to school, despite her fear. She’s learned she can get in trouble if Alisson misses class without a good excuse, and Alisson is generally happy at school.

But neither of them understands how American schools and children could become a target, even if it’s just a rumor.

“This doesn’t happen in my country,” says Torres.

Venezuela’s economy and democracy may be in shambles, says Torres, but no one there would think of threatening children at school.

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